Miss Tibet slams China over expulsion from pageant

NEW DELHI, India, 6 December 2007
–
A Tibetan contestant barred from participating in a
Malaysian beauty pageant blamed China on Wednesday for
her exclusion from the international event.

Tsering Chungtak, who flew back to the Indian capital
on Tuesday from the pageant venue in Kuala Lampur,
said organisers ordered her to wear a sash marked "Miss
Tibet-China" or withdraw from the contest.

"They gave me just two options and it was a nightmare,"
Chungtak said, adding the organisers told her they were
under Chinese pressure to force her to take off her "Miss
Tibet" sash while participating.

"I did not go to Malaysia with a political agenda. I was
there to spread friendship," the 22-year-old New Delhi
sociology student told a news conference.

Chungtak was crowned Miss Tibet in 2006 in the northern
Indian hilltop town of Dharamsala, home of the Tibetan
government-in-exile and residence of 1989 Nobel peace
laureate the Dalai Lama.

In 2005, Miss Tibet Tashi Yangchen too was barred from the
Malaysian pageant after Chinese officials complained that a
woman who lives in India cannot represent a part of China.

This year's pageant, which has drawn contestants from 30
countries, began on November 24 and the finals are to take
place on Friday.

"I refused to comply because the Tibetan issue is far from
resolved... I simply broke down in tears," said Chungtak,

"I was not expecting this to happen a second time,"
the young woman said tearfully.

The Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959, nine
years after China crushed an anti-Beijing uprising in Tibet
and occupied the Himalayan region sandwiched between India
and China.

Envoys of the Dalai Lama and China have conducted four
rounds of exploratory talks on rapprochement since 2002.

Many young Tibetans now say the Dalai Lama's non-violent
campaign for greater autonomy in their homeland is not
enough and that the international community must bear down
on Beijing to speed up the negotiations.